Protein Arrays for Molecular Analysis of Cancer Tissue

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this Phase I proposal is to demonstrate feasibility of the innovative laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) technology called Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation-Direct Write (MDW) for high throughput manufacturing of protein chips to achieve the long term objective of developing an innovative, fully integrated protein array system for molecular profiling of cancer progression directly from EPI's extensive archive of formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) human tumor tissues. The Specific Aims of the Phase I proposal are: 1. Deposit, via MDW technology, sub-microgram amounts of a known protein in a microarray format and detect that protein to determine level of sensitivity 2. Demonstrate capability to assay individual proteins within MDW-deposited total cellular protein lysates Once these clear and appropriate experimental milestones are achieved, EPI intends to transition this technology to the much broader systems approach as described in the Phase II proposal. The long term goal of this grant application is to establish MDW as the pivotal technology in an innovative protein array system designed for high throughput molecular profiling of the cancer process directly from fixed archived human tumor tissues blocks. Development of this integrated system will enable rapid and cost effective determination of changing patterns of protein expression across hundreds to thousands of tissue samples simultaneously, resulting in direct and definitive correlations of protein expression profiles with progression of specific cancers. This will lead to commercial advances in the discovery of new drug and diagnostic targets directly from human tumor tissue, as well as commercial application within the pharmaceutical industry, to improve the validation and prioritization process of novel and existing drug and diagnostic targets.